Sony Ericsson, Nokia Report Lower Q2 Sales

Nokia and Sony Ericsson reported lower sales in euros and units of mobile devices for the second quarter, ended June 30.

While Nokia's net profit fell 66 percent in the quarter compared with the previous year, Sony Ericsson reported a loss of 274 million euros compared with a 2 million euro loss in last year's second quarter.

Nokia had net sales of 9.9 billion euros, down 25 percent year on year. Nokia reported mobile device unit sales of 103.2 million units, down 15 percent year on year.

Nokia said its mobile device market share was 38 percent in the quarter, down 2 percent from the same time last year.

In a statement Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, said, “Competition remains intense, but demand in the overall mobile device market appears to be bottoming out. As before, we are continuing to tightly manage our operating expenses.”

Nokia expects industry mobile device volumes in the third quarter 2009 to be at approximately the same level or up slightly sequentially. It expects its mobile device market share in the third quarter 2009 to be approximately at the same level sequentially and flat with 2008.

Sony Ericsson's sales were 1.68 billion euros for the quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 40 percent due to “challenging marketing conditions in all regions,” especially in Latin America, the company said. Unit shipments were 13.8 million, a decrease of 43 percent year on year.

Sony Ericsson forecasts that the global handset market will be down by at least 10 percent this year. The company estimated its Q2 market share at around 5 percent.